Meet the TV women who make headlines

WITH so many prominent newswomen in the same room, you'd expect some degree of competition.

Gathering 18 of the country's top female TV identities for this special shoot was no mean feat, but it was conflicting schedules, not the idea of posing with rivals, which proved the biggest issue.

While West Australian audiences have long admired our local TV talent including Susannah Carr, Narelda Jacobs and Monika Kos, these women are flying the flag nationwide.

They are a part of our daily routine, beamed into our living rooms from breakfast to late at night. They inform us on everything from the latest weather to celebrity gossip and international dramas.

And it was clear during the shoot that TV's elite, such as Sandra Sully, Juanita Phillips, Lisa Wilkinson and Angela Bishop, as well as West Australians Natalie Barr and Georgie Gardner, all value and respect the position they are in and the roles they play.

Nine's Today presenter, Lisa Wilkinson, says there is no bad blood between women on TV. "It's a real treat," she said. "This is one of the misnomers about the industry we do actually all really like each other."

Barr, 44, said many people didn't realise how hard the job could be.

"A lot of us have moved to the country, moved overseas. When you are an on-the-road reporter you have to research, be road savvy, but you also have to write it," the Sunrise news presenter said.

"Sometimes you will be sitting in the gutter, with a time limit for when you can feed it back. You are literally sitting in the gutter, whacking some make-up on so you can do your 10-second stand-up and they are yelling for it.

"If you can't write, forget it that's half the job."

Gardner, 42, said the weight of female talent on TV now proved the days of it being a male-dominated industry were well and truly over.

"I think the fact I'm a female reading the 6pm news at Channel 9 probably speaks for itself in that that was often considered to be the last bastion in terms of male presenters," the Nine News weekend anchor and Today news presenter said.